Sunday, December 6, 2009

A great example of an international group that utilizes the Internet to tell its story and also reach multiple constituencies at the same time is the poverty and justice fighting confederation of 14 organizations working together to form - Oxfam International.

Oxfam International has one succinct website (link above) that provides easy access to all of their blogs; Flickr account; Twitter account; Facebook and YouTube content. Oxfam International writes on their site that "Although we have had blogs for a number of years, this site is our first attempt at bringing you a complete list of the latest posts from our growing portfolio." The site also includes the latest videos, photos and updates of Oxfam members around the world - advantageously giving the organization itself, a human face.

An illustrative example of how they are able to communicate vividly their interactions with the world's poor and also how their work is able to change lives is shown through their "Climate Change Blog." One example of a post from this blog contains content by Oxfam's executive director detailing poor Indian citizens he met and interviewed while at a Climate Hearing in Patna, India's poorest state. The really interesting aspect of this particular post is the quotes by local Indians explaining how climate change affects their daily life and existence. "Summer is two months longer, birds are not coming, so there are more insects and our crops are half of what they were" reads one stark comment by a farmer.

Through these testimonials, the blog post puts a human face on climate change impact and helps to make a person feel like getting involved can really make a difference in someones life. Conveniently at the end of this post a link is then provided to take you to a site to "Join Oxfam's campaign on climate change"

On this Oxfam International site, besides the links to social media platforms their members are using, there is also a Oxfam America blog, an East Asia blog and a Poverty blog. I think this site is very effective in showing how the organization is attempting to help the world's poor and marginalized, and it does this using one clear concise platform - the Internet.